Conventional bacteriological culturing techniques for the detection of bacteria are time consuming (requiring a minimum time of 24 hours), expensive (because of the labor involved) and are not as accurate as would be desirable.
In the past studies have been made of the activity of the enzyme catalase. In such studies bacteria and hydrogen peroxide have been brought together thereby generating a reaction between the catalase present in the bacteria causing the release of oxygen. The released O.sub.2 entering the free volume above the H.sub.2 O.sub.2 solution causes an increase in gas pressure. Attempts to measure this change in gas pressure (as with a manometer) have been made, but this method is definitely limited in speed of response. This limitation prevents dynamic monitoring of the catalase-H.sub.2 O.sub.2 reaction, which proceeds very rapidly. Also, the inherent lack of sensitivity of this type of measurement dictates against the use thereof for the quantitative measure of catalase activity.
Catalase activity has also been quantitatively measured by titration for the remaining H.sub.2 O.sub.2 after some preselected reaction period, but this method is cumbersome and inconvenient, would be very difficult to use for dynamic monitoring and offers no opportunity for continuous recording of the reaction.
There is a continuing and pressing need for a sensitive fast-response quantitative bacteria detector for use in identifying pathological conditions, in testing for water pollution, in processing foods, in defending against biological warfare, and in environmental control. Further, there is need for means to dynamically and continuously observe and record the catalase-H.sub.2 O.sub.2 reaction. These needs have been satisfied by various adaptions of the intant invention to be described herein.